Friday, 15 April 2011

Life After Disaster

Life after the earthquake, tsunami, and radiation crisis in Japan has not been easy. But I guess I should not complain much because I know the people in the north-eastern region of Sendai, Miyagi and Fukushima are going through much worse times than us in the Kanto region.

A couple of days ago, there was one aftershock happened at half-past eight in the morning in Chiba, measuring at magnitude-5.3, that halted most of the train operation. I had no choice but to walk for more than two kilometers to school, under the hot sun. Luckily, the temperature is still around eighteen degree Celsius, which is not that hot.

The train schedule at most train lines has been reduced to conserve the electricity.

Not wanting to get lost halfway, I just trailed along the railway track haha! It was not too bad because I got to enjoy the sight of cherry blossoms (sakura) along my walk to school.

Finally, the sight of the main entrance to Chiba University.

Sakura is at full bloom at my university, to represent the beginning of the new schooling year.

At most supermarkets and shopping mall, I notice they are trying their best to save the usage of electricity. Some ticket counters at train stations, and automated door at school and supermarkets are temporarily not running as well. Besides that, lights are dimmed, while evaluators and escalators have stopped running at most places. That is still not a main worry, because we can always take the stairs.

Besides, it can be a good work-out : )

Notice put up to inform people that the escalators are temporarily out-of-service.

I notice that every time after rain, there are yellowish stains on cars and motorcycles. Not very sure what are these,
but they look like some sulfuric material and could be due to the atmosphere.

The main problem however, is this.

Mineral water for drinking, which is out-of-stock at most supermarkets and shops.

I am not very sure of this, but the yogurt stock is also running low. Does eating yogurt enable you to combat the radioactive particle more effectively?

I think I have turned a stalker recently. A mineral-water stalker, to be more precise haha! Every time I come back from school, I will walk pass the convenience store next to the train station. On each occasion, I will stopped at the door and look straight through the glass door towards the water shelves to check out if there are stocks of mineral water. So, when people ask me why am I so busy lately, I'll just tell them I am busy checking out for drinking water all the time haha!

Most of the time, the two-litre mineral water will be sold out. I went to the Immigration office to deal with my visa stuff yesterday and on my way home, I dropped by at Lawson convenience store. Again, the mineral water shelve was empty. I then went into 7-11 next door and managed to get a bottle of two-litre mineral water. Too bad they limit only one bottle per customer.

Still, it was still a big achievement and I immediately texted Kai Cung, my housemate to tell him that I'd managed to buy some mineral water haha! Yea-lar, at this times, being able to buy mineral water in Japan is considered an achievement, okay? Haha!

We went to get some groceries yesterday afternoon and on our way home, Kai Cung spotted these! The great thing is that there was no notice that says how many bottles can one customer buy, so I asked Kai Cung to try buying two bottles first. I went in later and bought another two bottles.

Here are our current collection of mineral water. More than ten litres of water that can last us for the next few days, at least : )

Most of the time, we have to fight with the elderly aunties and uncles when we wanna buy water. So far, I have not gone through such experience, but according to Kok Hong, he would go queue up with his good friends (read: old grandmas and grandpas lol!) early in the morning before the supermarket opens to buy water. Another thing good tip he shared with me is to go to the supermarket around one hour before it closes, as that is the time they normally restock their mineral water.

Even though we are going through tough time over here (actually not that tough; we just have to be busy to look for mineral water all the time haha!), there are still some interesting stories happening.

Stopped by this new shop that sells taiyaki on my way back from school yesterday.

Bought two fishes - one red bean paste and another one with cream filling inside.

As you notice, the door is kinda low. After I made my payment, the lady, whom I feel couldn't resist from commenting on my height anymore, said something cute to me lol!